the Black Code by Innocent Futcha

plaint against their masters if the latter do not

also proclaims: "We declare slaves to be
moveable property" (Article 44), and "We feed them as laid down by the law. This is a
declare that slaves may not possess anything case of Catch-22: slaves are subject to the
which does not belong to their master . law, yet their legal existence is denied by the
people unfit to possess or contract in their very same text which entitles them to seek
Inthe France of Louis XIV slaves own right" (Article 28). This tendency to justice.
were legally regarded as chattels but were see slaves as objects, which clearly under- More generally, the Code Noir constantly
also considered to have sonis lies the spirit of the Code Noir, is spelled affirms one thing as well as its opposite, espe-
out in the two articles referred to, which cially where slaves' interests are concerned.
refuse to recognize them human beings. For slaves are above all regarded as prop-
The Code Noir (Black Code) was one The nature of the slave changes, depending erty which can be disposed of by their owner
of the first attempts in the history of on circumstances. While he is regarded as as he sees fit. Eleven articles regulate the
slavery to codify a hitherto unregulated prac- "moveable property" in Article 44, he exchange of that property between buyers
tice. Published as an edict by Louis XIV in becomes"immoveable property" in Article 48, and sellers, debtors and creditors.
March 1685, it included some sixty articles which sees him as an integral part of the"sugar The major part of the Code Noir
aimed at regulating the way black slaves works, indigo factories and dwellings" where devoted to the rules which should be imposed
lived-and died-in French possessions in he works. The legislator does exactly what on slaves to keep them under the control of
the West Indies and the Indian Ocean. In he likes with the slave, since he has first made their masters. Every aspect of their relationship
1724, the same legislation was extended to sure that theslave has no civilexistence. Article is taken into account. Among other things, a
cover Louisiana. 30, for example, states that the testimony of slave is not permitted to drink spirits, carry
The provisions of the Code Noir had slaves is null and void, and therefore cannot arms, assault his master, hold meetings or
three aims: to Christianize slaves, to specify count as evidence, while Article 31 stresses that above all abscond. The first time he tries to run
the prohibitions imposed on them and the slaves may not take out proceedings before away the slave loses an ear. If he tries again, he
punishments applicable to them, and to either : civil or a criminal court. is hamstrung. And if he is brave enough to try
define the conditions of their emancipation. A CASE OF CATCH-22 yet again, heis beheaded. Even activities in the
Described in these oversimplified terms, the What is the point of passing legislation on Code Noir relating to the emancipation of
Code Noir might seemto have been designed individuals who are patently not regarded slaves comprise provisions which restrict their
to facilitate the transition of blacks from as subjects of law? Yet Article 26, mentioned liberties.
slavery to freedom via Catholicism. above, allows slaves the right to lodge a com- In this respect Article 58 is typical. It urges
APPARENT LENIENCY clemence emancipated slaves 'to pay especial respectto
Becauseit advocated the baptism of slaves and their former masters, their widows and their
stated the conditions under which they could children;thus any disrespect they may show
"I am a man: nothing human
be emancipated, the Code Noir apparently
allen to me": this
towards them shall be punished more harshly
aphorism by Terence, the Latin poet of the 2nd than if it had been shown towards another
recognized blacks as belonging, to some extent,
to humankind. Some of its provisions granted century A.D. and himself an emancipated slave, person". The imposition of such conditions on
them explicit rights. They could, for example, was the caption to this 1791 engraving depicting emancipated slaves was tantamount to
demanding that they behave submissively
lodge a complaint against their mastersif they the supposedly more humane version of slavery
were not fed and clothed according to the law created by the Code Noir. The engraving was
towards whites in general, all of them actual or
(Article 26). Although they were required to potential owners of slaves. The distinction
produced by Louis Joseph Masqueller, from an
wed according to the rites of the Catholic between master and slave was compounded by
allegory painted by Jean-Michel Moreau. the henceforth insuperable divide between
Church, a spouse could not be imposed on
them (Article 11), and if slaves were seized or black and white-which at another time and
sold it was forbidden to separate husband, in another country came to be known as
wife and children (Article 47). Masters were apartheid. The enabling texts of the Code
required to support disabled and sick slaves Noir even went so far as to regulate the dress
of emancipated slaves in order to perpetuate
(Article 27), and could emancipate slaves in
their service without the consent of their par- their differences from their former masters.
All in all, the Code Noir did not do much
ents from the age of 20 (Article 55).
Taken separately, some articles of the to help slaves on their way to freedom. In it,
Code Noir were undeniably an improve- emancipation was seen as the transition from
one form of domination to another. But then
ment on the kind of practices endured by
slaves in other parts of the world until the
it could hardly have been otherwise in
world where the economic interests of the
nineteenth century. However, it has to be
recognized that in its overall effect " the Code dominant class were more powerful than
any humanitarian considerations.
Noir is the most monstrous legal text pro-
ducedin modern times" . This might seem to 1. Lluis Sala-Molins, Le Code Noir ou le calvaire
be a rather harshjudgment were it not for the de Canaan, Paris, PUF, 1987.
startling paradoxes that mar the spirit and
letter of that legislation.
The fact that the Code Noir emphasized INNOCENT FUTCHA, of Cameroon, teachesi the
the need to Christianize slaves, a subject to department of African literature in the Faculty of
which thirteen articles are devoted, might Arts, Letters and Human Sciences of the University
suggest that it at least recognizes them as of Yaounde-11, His main field of interest is South
having their own souland personality. Yet it African literature. 19